Cerulean warbler: Blue Ridge treasure

Published: Sunday, June 15, 2014 at 4:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Wednesday, June 11, 2014 at 3:14 p.m.

The New World Wood Warblers are considered by many birders to be the “jewels of North American birdlife” and come in a wide range of patterns and a perplexing combination of colors — black, white, orange and yellow.

Here in Western North Carolina, we have about 20 breeding species, but that number increases to almost 40 species during the spring and fall migrations.

One of our summer residents is the cerulean warbler, a warbler that is significantly different to most of the others. It is smaller, shorter-tailed, and the male sports a distinctive feathering of pale gray-blue above and snow-white below.

While both sexes are readily identifiable by their coloration, their habit of staying extremely high in the treetops makes them difficult to locate and see well. Thankfully the males are very vocal, so with some effort they can actually be found and sometimes seen.

The cerulean warbler is a fairly localized summer resident here in the mountains of North Carolina, although they can be quite obvious in the very small areas where they occur.

In our area, small numbers can be found in the higher elevations of the Blue Ridge Escarpment above the Tryon, Saluda and Columbus area of Polk County, in the rich woodlands at Chimney Rock State Park and along certain stretches of the Blue Ridge Parkway north of Asheville. In this huge, seemingly undisturbed area of rich deciduous forest, there seems to be a lot of suitable habitat, but the birds obviously know best and restrict themselves to the aforementioned locales.

Cerulean warblers breed from the Southern Appalachians north to the Great Lakes and just into southern Canada.

While these warblers breed in North Carolina every year, finding one of their nests is very hard indeed. Cerulean warblers build small cup-shaped nests atop tree limbs more than 30 feet above the ground.

These small lichen-covered nests are similar to those built by blue-gray gnatcatchers and ruby-throated hummingbirds, and all could easily be confused. Only their relative sizes distinguish them from each other.

At least one of the rarely found cerulean warbler nests was situated about 40 feet up in a hickory tree. We watched the female flying up to brood the contents, but unfortunately never discovered whether she had eggs or chicks in the nest. She was off the nest by the time we had the chance to revisit the site a week later. Other nests have been found in oaks and tulip trees, all about the same distance off the ground.

Cerulean warblers migrate south in early fall, crossing the Gulf of Mexico en route to their wintering grounds in South America. Here they join mixed flocks of tanagers, flycatchers and warblers primarily along the eastern slope of the Andes.

Unfortunately, they are badly affected by mountaintop removal in the breeding grounds in West Virginia and deforestation in South America and are a prime candidate to listing as an endangered species. An unfortunate situation for any species of bird let alone one of the more attractive long-distant migrants.

<p>The New World Wood Warblers are considered by many birders to be the “jewels of North American birdlife” and come in a wide range of patterns and a perplexing combination of colors — black, white, orange and yellow.</p><p>Here in Western North Carolina, we have about 20 breeding species, but that number increases to almost 40 species during the spring and fall migrations.</p><p>One of our summer residents is the cerulean warbler, a warbler that is significantly different to most of the others. It is smaller, shorter-tailed, and the male sports a distinctive feathering of pale gray-blue above and snow-white below.</p><p>While both sexes are readily identifiable by their coloration, their habit of staying extremely high in the treetops makes them difficult to locate and see well. Thankfully the males are very vocal, so with some effort they can actually be found and sometimes seen.</p><p>The cerulean warbler is a fairly localized summer resident here in the mountains of North Carolina, although they can be quite obvious in the very small areas where they occur.</p><p>In our area, small numbers can be found in the higher elevations of the Blue Ridge Escarpment above the Tryon, Saluda and Columbus area of Polk County, in the rich woodlands at Chimney Rock State Park and along certain stretches of the Blue Ridge Parkway north of Asheville. In this huge, seemingly undisturbed area of rich deciduous forest, there seems to be a lot of suitable habitat, but the birds obviously know best and restrict themselves to the aforementioned locales.</p><p>Cerulean warblers breed from the Southern Appalachians north to the Great Lakes and just into southern Canada.</p><p>While these warblers breed in North Carolina every year, finding one of their nests is very hard indeed. Cerulean warblers build small cup-shaped nests atop tree limbs more than 30 feet above the ground.</p><p>These small lichen-covered nests are similar to those built by blue-gray gnatcatchers and ruby-throated hummingbirds, and all could easily be confused. Only their relative sizes distinguish them from each other.</p><p>At least one of the rarely found cerulean warbler nests was situated about 40 feet up in a hickory tree. We watched the female flying up to brood the contents, but unfortunately never discovered whether she had eggs or chicks in the nest. She was off the nest by the time we had the chance to revisit the site a week later. Other nests have been found in oaks and tulip trees, all about the same distance off the ground.</p><p>Cerulean warblers migrate south in early fall, crossing the Gulf of Mexico en route to their wintering grounds in South America. Here they join mixed flocks of tanagers, flycatchers and warblers primarily along the eastern slope of the Andes.</p><p>Unfortunately, they are badly affected by mountaintop removal in the breeding grounds in West Virginia and deforestation in South America and are a prime candidate to listing as an endangered species. An unfortunate situation for any species of bird let alone one of the more attractive long-distant migrants.</p>